Eleanor HOPE
Eleanor Hope was born and raised in South Africa. After completing her studies (languages and business management) she worked in advertising, marketing and public relations. In 1975 she became the personal assistant to Yehudi Menuhin, and soon afterwards took over his general management. In 1980 he entrusted the artistic administration of his festival in Gstaad, Switzerland to her, and she retained this post until he retired as artistic director in 1996. Between 1981 and 1992 she was managing director of the London agency, Anglo Swiss Artists, which represented over 100 artists and orchestras, and which was active in the fields of concert promotion, event management and international orchestral touring. From 1992 to 1994 she was the artistic director of the Bath Mozartfest in England. She was on the advisory board of the festivals of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, and Vilnius, Lithuania, and on the sudden death of Lord Menuhin in 1999 she became chairman of the Yehudi Menuhin Memorial Trust. The same year she was asked to take over the artistic direction of the Menuhin Festival in Gstaad for three years.
Eleanor Hope worked for many years as a special projects advisor for IMG Artists, an international artists’ agency with offices in London, Paris, New York and Kuala Lumpur with responsibilities including the programming of the classical music, entertainment and dance subscription series of the Jahrhunderthalle Frankfurt in 2000 and 2001; collaboration on a study of the Basel Symphony Orchestra commissioned by the City of Basel; and the design of the Wroclaw Cultural Centre with the internationally renowned acousticians ARTEC.
She has wide experience in the organisation of special events in Vienna, where she now lives, and other European centres. She is in demand as a lecturer on career management in the arts, and is a regular member of the jury of the annual International Johannes Brahms Competition. She has also been a judge in the finals of Gradus Ad Parnassum, the Austrian inter-university music competition. Eleanor Hope is the general manager of violinist Vadim Repin and the conductors Vladimir Fedoseyev, James Judd and Sascha Goetzel.
